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Monday Scramble: Bad rules and Mr. Cool at Oakmont

Dustin Johnson gets his major, the USGA survives a self-inflicted black eye, Jason Day makes a late charge an more in this week's major edition of Monday Scramble:

The demons have been vanquished.

It wasn't exactly easy, and it certainly wasn't without a little controversy. But Dustin Johnson, perhaps the most physically gifted golfer of his generation, finally has his arms around a major championship trophy.

The U.S. Open began like so many majors have in recent years - with DJ bombing and gouging his way to the top of the standings. But this time, even though outside forces appeared to be conspiring against him down the stretch, he found a way to rise to the occasion.

A belted drive, followed by a laser iron and an emphatic birdie putt, Johnson closed out the proceedings at Oakmont in style, and in so doing erased the pain of a series of heartbreaks.

"For me to finally get it done on Sunday in a major," Johnson said, "it's a huge monkey off my back."

Pebble. Whistling Straits. Chambers Bay. They're all in the rear-view mirror now. The U.S. Open trophy is sitting right beside him, and that's all that matters.

1. Unfortunately for all parties involved - Johnson, the USGA and fans around the world - his tactical tee-to-green performance was overshadowed Sunday by a rules snafu that nearly took the tournament by storm.

Johnson's ball moved slightly on the fifth green, and replays showed it did so before he grounded the club behind the ball. While the walking rules official originally exonerated Johnson of any wrongdoing, tournament officials revisited him on the 12th tee. But the explanation there was simply to punt the final decision on a possible penalty until after the round, when video could be reviewed, leaving him in purgatory for the tournament's most crucial stretch.

What resulted was nothing short of a debacle, as players and fans were left to guess who was leading the tournament, and by how much. While the one-shot penalty was ultimately a moot point when it was finally (inevitably?) assessed, it hammered home the fact that the USGA mis-managed every aspect of the situation from the moment the official put his arm around Johnson's shoulder on the tee box.

Sure, it didn't decide the tournament like a questionable penalty did for Johnson at the 2010 PGA Championship. But that's a testament to Johnson's fortitude and resolve, and should in no way exonerate the USGA from their role in orchestrating a nearly-catastrophic chain of events on their biggest stage.

2. The USGA's situation certainly wasn't helped by the fact that several marquee players staged a social media mutiny. In a move that served as a sign of the times, players from the PGA Tour and beyond took to Twitter to voice their disagreement with the USGA's potential penalty, none more vehemently than Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Even Tiger Woods came out of hibernation to get in on the act, sending a congratulatory tweet to Johnson that referenced the "farce" surrounding the ruling.

As the USGA trotted out various representatives to explain the ruling, each time with limited success, the player-fueled rebellion served to highlight the tone-deaf nature of both the governing body's decision and the tactics with which they informed Johnson and the rest of the contenders of their plans.

Just as a referee should never determine the outcome of a team sporting event, so too the officials running tournaments should strive to remain silent adjudicators. Sunday's final round, uh, didn't play out that way.

3. Although Johnson has made his mark for years with eye-popping drives, it was always the putter that kept him from major glory, as it did last year at Chambers Bay. But Sunday, as the drives kept flying with regularity, it was Johnson's work on the greens that sealed the win.

While he was wobbly after hearing news of his maybe-possibly-we'll-see penalty, Johnson steadied himself with a clutch up-and-down from the bunker on No. 13. He followed with a 10-footer for par on No. 16, then curled in a putt on the 72nd hole that was barely longer than the one that missed a year ago outside Seattle.

It was always going to take a well-rounded performance for Johnson to get over the threshhold in a major way, and Sunday he authored just such an effort. Now, days shy of his 32nd birthday, it appears the floodgates could be on the verge of breaking.

4. While Johnson's win bucked his trend of close calls in majors, a pair of other marquee names saw their search for an elusive title endure.

It seemed, at least for a while, like it might be Lee Westwood's week. The Englishman holed out multiple shots from the fairway, and after a surprise runner-up at the Masters he played his way into the penultimate pairing Sunday alongside Johnson.

But Westwood made a hard-luck bogey on the second hole, and he never recovered. Out in 8-over 43, he didn't make a birdie until No. 17 and even that couldn't save him from a disastrous final-round 80. While he should be commended for the support he gave Johnson amidst the aforementioned rules fiasco, it was another opportunity gone by the wayside for Westwood, who still managed to keep his sense of humor afterwards:

YES! I'm still on for the playing in the last round with the winner of every major this year slam!!! #welldoneDJ

Like Westwood, Sergio Garcia had a great chance to win only to see his title dreams vanish in a flurry of bogeys. Garcia was 3 under standing on the 14th tee, but a bogey there was followed by an unplayable lie in a bunker on No. 15 that ended his chances. He finished the week tied for fifth, and left Oakmont with a very Garcia-like quip after his 21st career top-10 in a major.

"I just got to keep putting myself in this situation and, you know, at some point in time, I'm sure that, you know, the coin will end up, will fall off on heads instead of tails," he said.

5. Johnson's theatrics distracted somewhat from the fact that Shane Lowry let the trophy slip away. After 54 holes of stellar play, including some early-morning birdies Sunday that stretched his lead to four shots, Lowry appeared out of sorts and frustrated for the entire final round.

The Irishman made only one birdie, and while Johnson handled the back-nine pressure it was Lowry who folded with three straight bogeys on Nos. 14-16.

In so doing, he became just the third player to cough up a 54-hole lead of at least four shots at the U.S. Open, and the first to do so since Payne Stewart in 1998. For the record, Stewart won the following year.

6. While the result was disappointing given where he started the final round, it was one that Lowry admitted he would have taken at the start of the week. It's also one that may muddy the waters when it comes to the Ryder Cup.

Lowry is set to defend his WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title in two weeks, a start for which he will earn no Ryder Cup points. Many European counterparts, including Rory McIlroy, will be at the Open de France that same week where double points are offered.

Lowry originally made the decision to head to Akron instead of Paris because he felt he was too far out of the Hazeltine mix to qualify or merit strong consideration for a pick. A surprise runner-up finish on a stern test at Oakmont likely changed those prospects considerably.

7. A way-too-early look at the potential automatic qualifiers for the Ryder Cup, which is now just 101 days away:

8. Back at Bay Hill, McIlroy was asked about chasing the career Grand Slam at the Masters, and which of the four legs might be the toughest to acquire.

“I’m just glad I’ve won a U.S. Open,” he said. “Put it that way.”

The comment evoked some laughs from the crowded media center, but it bears some truth: the further we get from McIlroy’s eight-shot romp at Congressional in 2011, the more it appears to be an outlier.

He hasn’t really contended since, outside of a backdoor top-10 last year at Chambers Bay. And this week at Oakmont he appeared rattled by the stop-and-start nature of Thursday’s opening round, turning what looked like a 73 or 74 into a costly 77.

His start to the second round was equally frustrating, showing just how high his ceiling is when it’s all clicking, only to be forfeited when he stumbled down the stretch.

McIlroy had plenty going for him this week – confidence in his swing, strong form and a recent win to build on. It resulted in his first missed cut at a major in nearly three years, and reinforced the notion that McIlroy’s second U.S. Open title could be a long time coming.

9. While he didn't win a second major title, Day certainly acquitted himself well at Oakmont in rallying from an opening 76 to post a T-8 finish.

The Aussie even seemed to have an outside chance at victory after a chip-in eagle on No. 12, though those chances were dashed a few holes later as he played ping-pong across the 17th green. On a week when McIlroy flamed out and Spieth failed to muster much of a title defense, Day was the lone bright spot among the world's top-ranked players and remains the most consistent player of 2016.

Talk in recent weeks and months has centered on the notion of a Big Three. While Johnson's win puts a rip in that fabric, as he supplants McIlroy at world No. 3, it's Day who continues to distance himself from the rest of the game's elite as his 10-month hot streak rolls right along.

10. When Phil Mickelson wraps up his illustrious career, the U.S. Open will still be the one that got away.

Mickelson has had three chances to complete the career Grand Slam, and his results have gotten progressively worse: T-28 at Pinehurst, T-64 at Chambers Bay, and a missed cut at Oakmont, where he also sat out the weekend in 2007.

Mickelson will turn 47 next year when the tournament shifts to a relative unknown in Erin Hills, and by the time he gets to familiar haunts in Shinnecock and Winged Foot, his PGA Tour Champions card will be within reach.

Could Mickelson turn back the clock with one more back-nine charge, challenge for the trophy that has most eluded him? Sure. But a win, at his age, would be nearly unprecedented in major championship golf.

More than likely, his last best chance to win a U.S. Open has already come and gone.

11. It’s time to sound the alarm about Fowler.

Fowler dispelled any notion of “overrated” during a banner 2015 campaign, then looked ready to add to his trophy collection early in the season. But a missed cut at the Masters was followed by early exits at both TPC Sawgrass and Oakmont, and all of a sudden Fowler has missed four of his last six cuts.

Even the lone bright spot, a T-4 finish at Quail Hollow, wasn’t entirely rosy considering he blew a 54-hole lead after a Sunday 74.

The biggest issue for Fowler is his inability to get out of the gates at majors. His opening-round score at the last six majors: 73, 81, 72, 73, 80, 76.

Fowler has the game to turn things around quickly, but make no mistake – he’ll be facing pressure to do so at Troon and Baltusrol.

As players young and old shared their two cents over the USGA's ruling on Johnson, John Daly entered the conversation in, well, a very John Daly sort of way. Bottoms up, JD.

This week's award winners ...

'Frickin' Sweet': Those are the words Andrew Landry used to describe his Oakmont experience despite a difficult final round. Landry wasn't able to hold things together for 72 holes, but his spot in Sunday's final pairing - as one who advanced through both local and sectional qualifying - speaks to the uniquely democratic nature of this event.

Pay the man: In his final round as an amateur, top-ranked Jon Rahm shot a 72 that included six birdies to finish T-23 and take home low amateur honors. He'll start playing for pay this week at the Quicken Loans National, and don't be surprised if you see his name on a few PGA Tour leaderboards this summer.

More Protracer, please: This week's coverage was a reminder that there is no such thing as too much Protracer. Let's get it going for college football games, or at least hook it up to my cart for my weekly four-hour hack. Can't get enough of it.

Nothing to see here, move along, please: Mike Davis. The USGA's executive director has no problem being the face of the organization when it comes to course setup and various other aspects of its most high-profile event, but when a rules snafu put his organization under the microscope, he was conspicuously absent.

Blown Fantasy Pick of the Week: Hideki Matsuyama. One of the most consistent ball-strikers on Tour, facing a penal layout that rewards tee-to-green precision? Certainly didn't see 78-74 in the cards.

Beginning with the dramatic playoff finish at the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic in January and concluding with Lexi Thompson winning the $1 million Race to the CME Globe, nearly 22 million viewers tuned in to LPGA Tour coverage across Golf Channel and NBC in 2017. This makes 2017 the most-viewed LPGA Tour season across NBC Sports since Golf Channel joined the NBC Sports Group in 2011. Additionally, 2017 tied 2013 as the LPGA Tour’s most-watched year across NBC Sports since 2011. Coverage drew an average of 221,000 viewers per telecast in 2017 (+24% vs. 2016), according to data released by The Nielsen Company.

For the first time ever in televised women’s golf, Sunday’s final round of the RICOH Women’s British Open (Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017, 1.1 million viewers) delivered the most-watched and highest-rated women’s golf telecast of the year. NBC’s Saturday (Day 2) coverage of the Solheim Cup in August placed second with 968,000 viewers, followed by Sunday’s Solheim Cup coverage on NBC with 946,000 viewers. Golf Channel’s live coverage of Sunday’s final day of the Solheim Cup drew 795,000 viewers, the most-watched women’s golf event on cable in eight years.

Rank

Network

Event

Day

Avg. Viewers P2+

1

NBC

RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN

Sunday

1,100,526

2

NBC

SOLHEIM CUP

Saturday

968,202

3

NBC

SOLHEIM CUP

Sunday

946,387

4

NBC

KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Sunday

839,983

5

NBC

RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN

Saturday

808,578

6

GOLF

SOLHEIM CUP

Sunday

795,000

ADDITIONAL VIEWERSHIP MILESTONES FOR WOMEN’S GOLF IN 2017

ANA Inspiration - The LPGA’s first major championship delivered thefifth most-watched LPGA final round in Golf Channel history with 551,000 viewers when So Yeon Ryu defeated Lexi Thompson in a playoff following Thompson being assessed a four-stroke penalty earlier in the final round.

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – The LPGA’s second major was seen by 6.6 million viewers across Golf Channel and NBC, the largest audience for the event on record (2006-17). Sunday’s final round on NBC, which saw Danielle Kang win her first LPGA Tour event over defending champion Brooke Henderson, also was the most-watched telecast in the event’s history with 840,000 average viewers.

RICOH Women’s British Open – NBC’s Sunday coverage of the RICOH Women’s British Open delivered the most-watched and highest-rated women’s golf telecast in 2017 (.78 U.S. HH rating, 1.1 million viewers). In total, 7 million unique viewers tuned in to coverage across Golf Channel and NBC, the most-watched RICOH Women’s British Open in the past 10 years and the most-watched among the five women’s major championships in 2017.

Solheim Cup – Seen by a total audience of 7.3 million viewers across Golf Channel and NBC, the Solheim Cup posted the largest total audience for women’s golf since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open on ESPN/NBC. Golf Channel’s live coverage of the final day drew 795,000 average viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s golf telecast on cable in the last eight years, since the final day of the 2009 Solheim Cup.

RICOH Women’s British Open – Four-day coverage of the RICOH Women’s British Open saw 2 million minutes streamed, +773% vs. 2016.

NBC Sports Group combined to air 31 LPGA Tour events in 2017 and a total of 420 hours of coverage, the most in LPGA history. The exclusive cable home to the LPGA Tour, Golf Channel aired coverage of four of five women’s major championships in 2017, with three majors also airing on NBC: the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, RICOH Women’s British Open and The Evian Championship. The biennial Solheim Cup also returned to network television for the first time in 15 years with weekend coverage on NBC.

Hensby takes full responsibility for violation

The PGA Tour’s Anti-Doping Program manual covers 48 pages of details, from the pressing to the mundane, but for Mark Hensby the key section of the policy could be found on Page 5.

“The collector may allow you to delay reporting to the testing area for unavoidable obligations; however, you will be monitored from the time of notification until completion of the sample collection process,” the policy reads. “A failure to report to the testing area by the required time is the same as a doping violation under the program.”

Hensby, a 46-year-old former Tour winner from Australia, didn’t read that section, or any other part of the manual. In fact, he said he hasn’t received the circuit’s anti-doping manual in years. Not that he uses that as an excuse.

To be clear, Hensby doesn’t blame his anti-doping plight on anyone else.

“At the end of the day it’s my responsibility. I take full responsibility,” he told GolfChannel.com.

Like Doug Barron, Scott Stallings and even Vijay Singh before him, Hensby ran afoul of the Tour’s anti-doping policy because, essentially, of a clerical error. There were no failed tests, no in-depth investigations, no seedy entourages who sent Hensby down a dark road of performance-enhancing drug use.

Just a simple misunderstanding combined with bad timing.

Hensby, who last played a full season on Tour in 2003, had just completed the opening round of the Sanderson Farms Championship when he was approached by a member of the Tour’s anti-doping testing staff. He was angry about his play and had just used the restroom on the 17th hole and, he admits, was in no mood to wait around to take the urine test.

“Once I said, ‘Can I take it in the morning,’ [the Tour’s anti-doping official] said, ‘We can’t hold you here,’” Hensby recalled. “I just left.”

Not one but two officials called Hensby that night to ask why he’d declined to take the test, and he said he was even advised to return to the Country Club of Jackson (Miss.) to take the test, which is curious because the policy doesn’t allow for such gaps between notification of a test and the actual testing.

According to the policy, a player is considered in violation of the program if he leaves the presence of the doping control officers without providing the required sample.

A Tour official declined to comment on the matter citing the circuit’s policy not to comment on doping violations beyond the initial disclosure.

A week later, Hensby was informed he was in violation of the Tour’s policy and although he submitted a letter to the commissioner explaining the reasons for his failure to take the test he was told he would be suspended from playing in any Tour-sanctioned events (including events on the Web.com Tour) for a year.

“I understand now what the consequences are, but you know I’ve been banned for a performance-enhancing drug violation, and I don’t take performance-enhancing drugs,” Hensby said.

Hensby isn’t challenging his suspension nor did he have any interest in criticizing the Tour’s policy, instead his message two days after the circuit announced the suspension was focused on his fellow Tour members.

“I think the players need to read that manual really, really well. There are things I wasn’t aware of and I think other players weren’t aware of either,” he said. “You have to read the manual.”

It was a similar message Stallings offered following his 90-day suspension in 2015 after he turned himself in for using DHEA, an anabolic agent that is the precursor to testosterone production and banned by the Tour.

“This whole thing was a unique situation that could have been dealt with differently, but I made a mistake and I owned up to it,” Stallings said at the time.

Barron’s 2009 suspension, which was for a year, also could have been avoided after he tested positive for supplemental testosterone and a beta-blocker, both of which were prescribed by a doctor for what were by many accounts legitimate health issues.

And Singh’s case, well that chapter is still pending in the New York Supreme Court, but the essential element of the Fijian’s violation was based on his admitted use of deer-antler spray, which contained a compound called IGF-1. Although IGF-1 is a banned substance, the World Anti-Doping Agency has ruled that the use of deer-antler spray is not a violation if an athlete doesn’t fail a drug test. Singh never failed a test.

The Tour’s anti-doping history is littered with cases that could have been avoided, cases that should have been avoided. Despite the circuit’s best educational efforts, it’s been these relatively innocent violations that have defined the program.

In retrospect, Hensby knows he should have taken the test. He said he had nothing to hide, but anger got the best of him.

“To be honest, it would have been hard, the way I was feeling that day, I know I’m a hothead at times, but I would have probably stayed [had he known the consequences],” he admitted. “You’ve got to understand that if you have too much water you can’t get a test either and then you have to stay even longer.”

Hensby said before his run in with the anti-doping small print he wasn’t sure what his professional future would be, but his suspension has given him perspective and a unique motivation.

“I was talking to my wife last night, I have a little boy, it’s been a long month,” said Hensby after dropping his son, Caden, off at school. “I think I have a little more drive now and when I come back. I wasn’t going to play anymore, but when I do come back I am going to be motivated.”

He’s also going to be informed when it comes to the Tour’s anti-doping policy, and he hopes his follow professionals take a similar interest.

Lesson with Woods fetches $210K for Harvey relief

A charity event featuring more than two dozen pro golfers raised more than $1 million for Hurricane Harvey relief, thanks in large part to a hefty price paid for a private lesson with Tiger Woods.

The pro-am fundraiser was organized by Chris Stroud, winner of the Barracuda Championship this summer, and fellow pro and Houston resident Bobby Gates. It was held at Bluejack National in Montgomery, Texas, about an hour outside Houston and the first Woods-designed course to open in the U.S.

The big-ticket item on the auction block was a private, two-person lesson with Woods at Bluejack National that sold for a whopping $210,000.

Other participants included local residents like Stacy Lewis, Patrick Reed and Steve Elkington as well as local celebrities like NBA All-Star Clyde Drexler, Houston Texans quarterback T.J. Yates and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.

Stroud was vocal in his efforts to help Houston rebuild in the immediate aftermath of the storm that ravaged the city in August, and he told the Houston Chronicle that he plans to continue fundraising efforts even after eclipsing the event's $1 million goal.

"This is the best event I have ever been a part of, and this is just a start," Stroud said. "We have a long way to go for recovery to this city, and we want to keep going with this and raise as much as we can and help as many victims as we can."

LPGA schedule features 34 events, record purse

The LPGA schedule will once again feature 34 events next year with a record $68.75 million in total purses, the tour announced on Wednesday.

While three events are gone from the 2018 schedule, three new events have been added, with two of those on the West Coast and one in mainland China.

The season will again start with the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic on Paradise Island (Jan. 25-28) and end with the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., (Nov. 15-18).

The LPGA played for $65 million in total prize money in 2017.

An expanded West Coast swing in the front half of the schedule will now include the HUGEL-JTBC Championship in the Los Angeles area April 19-22. The site will be announced at a later date.

The tour will then make a return to San Francisco’s Lake Merced Golf Club the following week, in a new event sponsored by L&P Cosmetics, a Korean skincare company. Both new West Coast tournaments will be full-field events.

The tour’s third new event will be played in Shanghai Oct. 18-21 as part of the fall Asian swing. The title sponsor and golf course will be announced at a later date.

“Perhaps the most important aspect of our schedule is the consistency — continuing to deliver strong playing opportunities both in North America and around the world, while growing overall purse levels every year,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said in a statement. “There is simply no better [women’s] tour opportunity in the world, when it comes to purses, global TV coverage or strength of field. It’s an exciting time in women’s golf, with the best players from every corner of the globe competing against each other in virtually every event.”

While the Evian Championship will again be played in September next year, the tour confirmed its plans to move its fifth major to the summer in 2019, to be part of a European swing, with the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open and the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

The Manulife LPGA Classic and the Lorena Ochoa Invitational are not returning to the schedule next year. Also, the McKayson New Zealand Women’s Open will not be played next year as it prepares to move to the front of the 2019 schedule, to be paired with the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

The U.S. Women’s Open will make its new place earlier in the summer, a permanent move in the tour’s scheduling. It will be played May 31-June 3 at Shoal Creek Golf Club outside Birmingham, Ala. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (June 28-July 1) will be played at Kemper Lakes Golf Club on the north side of Chicago and the Ricoh Women’s British Open (Aug. 2-5) will be played at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England.

For the first time since its inception in 2014, the UL International Crown team event is going overseas, with the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, South Korea, scheduled to host the event Oct. 4-7. The KEB Hana Bank Championship will be played in South Korean the following week.